“Good morning mum. You asked to see me?” Banjo poked his head around his mother’s door.
“Come in and stop acting so juvenile.” she snapped but her bark lacked conviction.
Banjo stepped fully into the office and subconsciously readjusted the jacket of his suit as he stepped forward to his mother’s desk.
“What is this I hear about you getting your pictures splattered in the magazines?” she asked as she continued to read through the papers on her desk.
“What exactly did you hear?” Banjo stalled.
His mother’s head came up to give him a sarcastic look and she turned her attention back to her papers.
“I went on a date with a...friend, a really good friend and some journalist took some pictures and someone thought it was news worthy for whatever reasons.”
He remained quiet as his mother continued reading. To someone who did not know Chief Mrs. Adeniran, they would have imagined she had barely heard what he had just said, but Banjo knew his mother. Had loved her all his life, for as long as he had memories and he knew that she had not only heard, but that she was carefully weighing his words.
“Sooo, is she the newest flame or is this a bit more serious?” she asked.
“I don’t do flames Mum.” Banjo reprimanded as mildly as he could manage.
His mother dropped the pen she had been twiddling with as she read and looked up at him squarely.
“And Emily?” she asked.
Banjo scoffed his disbelief. “Emily?” he asked. “Mum you could barely tolerate her even though I don’t understand what the girl ever did wrong to you!”
To Banjo’s surprise, his mother seemed a bit discomfited by his tirade.
“I had nothing against her. She’s a perfectly well behaved girl.” she rebutted.
Banjo sighed. “Mum, I was not in love with her. I liked her well enough but even...even that kind of faded. I never quite managed to engage with her on any deep level.” He tried explaining.
Mrs. Adeniran remained silent as she got up from her swivel chair and walked to her expansive windows with its breathtaking view of the city.
“I have been very angry for a very long time.” she said quietly, reflectively. She turned away from the view outside and looked carefully at her son.
Banjo looked back at his mother sensing that he was about to gain an insight into a part of her that she had not let many people see.
“When I realized that your father was an inveterate womanizer and that nothing I did would keep his interest at home, I think a part of me died.” She laid a hand on her chest as if it hurt. “It just shriveled up, froze and died.” She walked back to her seat and sat down.
“I had never felt so humiliated as when all those women would flaunt their relationship with my husband in my face and nobody...nobody rebuked him or them for it. Everyone seemed to think it was acceptable. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I guess I needed someone to blame so that I could live with myself. I blamed Bola, Emily’s dad. He and your father were so close and they were partners in crime.”
She continued on a sigh. “Perhaps, I disliked Emily because you are not at all like your dad in that regards. It was like God wanted to pay me back for all the pain I had been through. You were perfect. You took the very best of him and somehow managed not to take the worse in him. You were a dream come true. And I resented that it would be Bola’s daughter to have all this...all that I had made myself believe that he had denied me in my own marriage by his continued association with your dad.”
Banjo was speechless in remembered and shared sorrow. He had been old enough to see some of the dynamics of his parent’s relationship. He had not always understood but with his mother’s speech came clarity on some points that had always had him stumped.
She shook her head sadly at Banjo. “No one can truly make you what you are determined not to be.” she said. “Your father did not want to be faithful.” she sniffled. “It was as simple as that. It was no one’s fault but his.” She leaned forward to emphasize. “It was never Bola’s fault. It was never Emily’s fault and I shouldn’t have made it theirs.” She searched Banjo’s face earnestly and then continued. “If my...anger or behavior towards Emily was in anyway responsible for your breaking it off with her, I would like for you to reconsider, please.”
Banjo smiled sadly at this woman who had birthed him and had practically raised him and his sister all by herself. He understood again in that moment that he loved this woman beyond the reasons why.
“No Mum. It wasn’t you. It just never quite clicked.” He reassured her. His mother breathed what sounded like a muted, much muted sigh of relief.
“This girl, this Alero...” she began and Banjo smiled just a little wider, ‘Chief Mrs. Adeniran!’ He thought. Of course she had done her research!
“Is it serious with her then?” she asked and then smiled mischievously, “Have you managed to connect with her on some deeper level?”
Banjo chuckled. “I believe so.” he replied, savoring flashes of memories in his head.
“Hm!” she nodded and shifted some papers around on her desk. “When am I going to meet her?”
“Soon Mum, soon. But you have to promise me something.” Banjo prompted.
His mother cocked her head in question.
“Give her a chance. Don’t scare her away before...you have a chance to know her.”
Mrs. Adeniran cocked an eyebrow at her son.
“If she is so easily frightened, then perhaps she won’t be able to cut it as an Adeniran.” she stated emphatically.
“MUM!!! I just said no snap judgments!” Banjo mock wailed.
Mrs. Adeniran held up her hands in a sign of surrender. “Okay, Okay! I will try not to make any snap judgments.” she said.
“Thank you Mum!” Banjo breathed out in relief.
“I am not an ogre! I don’t appreciate you trying to make me out as one!” she snapped.
“Yes Mum. I know Mum. You are the ‘bestest’ mum in the whole world.” Banjo teased.
Mrs. Adeniran sighed in mock despair and rolled her eyes. “And to think what we paid for an Ivy League education.” she mumbled just loudly enough for him to hear. “’Bestest!’”
Banjo exited her office with a smile and a lightness of step that mirrored his lightness of spirit.